Mauna Lani Bay Hotel- yearling turtles

July 26, 2019

Today we joined Pi'i Laeha at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel to observe and assist in the monthly measurement of the 6 yearling Sea Life Park honu that are in residence at the hotel.  Laura Jim's marine studies class joined us in assisting in the capture and measurement of the 6 little turtles.
It was a beautiful day and everyone had a great time assisting in the monthly evaluation.
Below are a series of images of the activities of the day.

The turtle pond... temporary as the hotel is renovated.

Turtle number 83 surfacing to take a breath.

A neat shot of turtle 81 and its shadow.

Pi'i collects one of the yearling turtles.

They were placed in carry containers and transported to the work area for weighing and measuring.

The HPA team holds a honu so that Ms Jim can take a picture of the left facial scales for future identification.

Taking data.

Bring one of the honu to the measuring table after weighing.

Ms Jim measures the straight width while students control the honu.

Releasing one of the honu after it has been weighed and measured.

Taking a picture ofthe right side for facial recognition.

Pi'i Laeha with the HPA student team.

Releasing the last of 6 honu back into the pond.

Wailea Bay Research Project

7/24/2019

A few weeks ago, Bill White (Parent of HPA grads Paul and Ryan White) contacted Laura Jim and Marc Rice about our possible participation in a research project surrounding the protection of Wailea Bay, Hawaii Island.  We were, of course, thrilled to take part in the project as it will allow many of our students to participate in gathering and analyzing data, mapping coral in the bay using ARCGIS online, conducting under water transects to formulate a baseline of coral health in the bay and publishing the information for public consumption.
NOTE: Thanks to Bill Wiecking and the E Lab for providing the drone and a special thanks to Ethan Goore for doing all of the hard work of piloting and garnering the images!

Wailea Bay with the Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD) mauka of the yellow line.

To start off the project, we were asked if we could map fresh water outflow into the bay.  Utilizing a FLIR infrared camera we took pictures of the bay using a DJI Mavic drone to see if we could
differentiate fresh water from salt water based on the fact that the fresh ground water flowing into the bay would be colder that ocean water.  We have yet to look at the pictures but we did go down and fly the mission.  Ethan Goore (HPA class of '21) piloted the drone using Drone Deploy software.  Below are a few pictures of the days activities.  As soon as we get the pictures stitched together, I will share them with you.

Pilot Ethan Goore and Wailea resident Bill White.

Just about ready to take off.

The Mavic pro drone with FLIR IR camera.

          

Ethan landing the drone by "hand capture".

A picture of the south side of Wailea Bay at 1000 h on 7/24/2019.

The north end of Wailea Bay at 1000 h on 7/24/2019.

Thirtieth Turtle Independence Day Celebration

7/4/2019
HPA Summer School Students, Laura Jim and Marc Rice joined a small group of observers to assist in the release of two Mauna Lani turtles.  This years celebration was very much smaller because the Mauna Lani Hotel is still under renovation.
For a more complete recap of the days activities please see MLBH RELEASE.

HPA Summer School Students released one of the turtles on July 4th.